In conventional lighting fixtures, it is difficult, if not impossible, to reliably monitor an operational status of the lighting fixtures (i.e., whether a light is working properly or not). Conventionally, when a controller or a testing system interfaces with the lighting fixture, the validation process can become quite lengthy to test over full temperature and voltage ranges. The time to establish firmware set points and then conduct a full validation for a single combination of components for the lighting fixture may be substantial. Conventionally, current sensing is used to monitor the amount of current being used by the lighting fixture from the power supply. With newer very low power Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting fixtures that need low level currents to operate, sensing a current input to the lighting fixture is difficult to decipher between a faulty light and a properly functional light of the lighting fixture over the full temperature and operating voltage range. For example, due to a non-linear forward voltage drop of the LED (if used as a light source in the lighting fixture), temperature and voltage variations will change the amount of current used from the power supply by the lighting fixture. In addition, if the light malfunctions, a known good measurement of the current will change. As new products are released, the new validation procedure would have to be repeated. This change to each configuration affects the backward compatibility of every new product. New part numbers then have to be created to track the configurations and validated firmware.
Accordingly, there is a need to address the foregoing and other problems associated with conventional lighting systems.